What's all the fuss? It's just a cat, says woman seen on CCTV shoving tabby in wheelie bin

A woman who enraged animal lovers across the world by dumping a cat in a wheelie bin said today she 'thought it would be funny'.

But Mary Bale, 45, has received death threats, and a
Facebook page set up to track her down has attracted more than 18,000
members.

Miss Bale was caught on
video picking up four-year-old tabby cat Lola before throwing her into the bin and closing the lid.

But she claimed the outcry had been blown out of all proportion.

She said: 'I don't know what the fuss is about. It's just a cat.'

The unmarried bank worker said she was just walking home on
Saturday when she saw the cat and decided to play with it. But she told
the Sun that she 'suddenly thought it would be funny' to put it in the
bin.

'I did it as a joke because I thought it would be funny. I
never thought it would be trapped, I expected it to wriggle out,' she
said.

Referring to the CCTV footage, she told how she could not
believe it was being seen around the world and was afraid it would
upset her family.

She said: 'I don't know what my relatives will think
but to be honest I think everyone is overreacting a bit.'

While Miss Bale admitted she should not have done it, she said
she did not deserve to be 'hated' by everyone and assumed the cat would
find its own way out the bin.

Her mother also insisted the unmarried bank clerk 'loved cats' - and had even kept them as pets as a child.

Celia Bale, 78, said: 'She's my daughter and as far as I'm
concerned she is the most caring person you could ever wish to meet.

'She
had cats when she was a little girl and has never shown any cruelty to
animals before in her life - she loves animals.

'I
talked to her on the phone today and she can't explain why she did it
or what got into her head, only that she really regrets it.'

The
mother-of-three added that her husband Maurice, Miss Bale's father, was
in a critical condition after falling down the stairs last week,
damaging his pelvis and vertebrae.

She said of her
daughter: 'She's been under a great deal of strain these past two
weeks.

'Her father had a nasty fall and has been in a critical condition
in hospital ever since.

'She's very close to her father and I think it's
had a real impact on her.

[caption]

Reunited: Lola back with owner Darryl Mann yesterday. He posted footage
of the incident on YouTube in a
bid to catch the culprit, now identified as Miss Bale (pictured above at her church choir's annual dinner)

'She's been soldiering on but I think it has
got to her more than I realised.

'I'm awfully worried
about her because people have been saying some dreadful things about
her and making threats.'

She added that she believed her daughter might
keep animals if she didn't work.

'I know that sounds ironic considering what has happened, but she does love cats,' she said.

It
was also revealed last night that Miss Bale, who lives in Coventry and
works as a cashier at RBS in nearby Rugby, was once a member of the
Birmingham Bach Choir.

Miss Bale seems harmless as she strokes four-year-old cat, Lola, as it walks along a wall on a street in Coventry. But she then grabs it by the scruff of its neck, puts it in a wheelie bin and casually walks away

Miss Bale was caught on camera in
Coventry as she threw the cat into the wheelie bin this weekend.

Lola
was found 15 hours later when owner Darryl Mann, 26, heard her mewing
from inside the bin.

Members
of a Facebook group set up by Lola's owners to identify the woman in
the CCTV footage have posted death threats against Miss Bale. Some have been posted from as far away as Australia.

Hundreds of thousands around the globe have seen the YouTube video they also posted, 100,000 in the UK alone.

One wrote 'throw her in the bin and see how she likes it', while others called for her to be killed. Last night, owner Stephanie Andrews-Mann, 24, said she was glad the culprit had been found and hoped she'd be brought to justice.

She said: 'All I wanted was a name so I could pass it on to the police.

'It's terrible that her dad's in hospital, but to be totally honest, it's not my cat's problem.

'Though what she did was totally wrong, I don't want her to be too petrified to go out.'

West
Midlands Police were keeping watch outside Miss Bale's terraced home
yesterday and a spokesman said she had been offered advice on how to
stay safe.

Neighbours
described her as a reclusive woman who rarely had visitors. One, who
asked not to be named, said: 'She is a very nice lady, though very
quiet.